Farmers at receiving end

The Gujarat Government has thrown its weight behind the potato farmers who have been sued by PepsiCo for allegedly growing the FC5 variety without authorisation. The multinational giant claims to have obtained the rights for this variety in 2016 under the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Right Act, 2001. However, the farmers are quoting the same legislation in their defence, saying that it allows them ‘to save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share or sell his farm produce, including seed of a variety protected under this Act’.

Amid the Lok Sabha elections, the issue has acquired political overtones after senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel accused the BJP dispensation in Gujarat of turning a blind eye to the farmers’ plight. Subsequently, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel announced that the state government would intervene in the legal battle. The company says it was compelled to take legal recourse to safeguard the interests of thousands of farmers associated with its collaborative potato farming programme. However, the alleged use of pressure tactics to make more of them join this venture is uncalled-for.

The food and beverage behemoth has offered to settle the dispute if the farmers toe the line. They can give an undertaking to purchase the specific seed variety from the company and later sell the produce to it. Such restrictions will make things tougher for potato growers, who are grappling with fluctuating crop prices, inconsistent quality and the vagaries of weather. The terms and conditions of the contracts signed between the two parties should be economically reasonable as well as mutually acceptable. Offering unfair advantage to one party defeats the purpose of these agreements. The government should step in at the right time so that the corporates don’t ride roughshod over the beleaguered farming community. There is also a need to revisit the Act in question, which provides for the ‘establishment of an effective system for the protection of plant varieties, the rights of farmers and plant breeders and to encourage the development of new varieties of plants’. There should be no room for ambiguity or confusion regarding provisions of the law.